Oil prices rose to their highest levels in two months following the Houthi attack on the tanker.
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The day before, Iran-backed militants hit a fuel tanker for trading giant Trafigura Group in the Red Sea, their most attack on an oil ship, Bloomberg writes.
WTI oil rose to $78. per barrel (Brent – $83.55), which is the highest price since November. Oil prices have risen more than 6% this week, the biggest gain since the week after the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Overall, oil prices rose more than 8% in January, boosted by an unexpectedly large drop in U.S. inventories, positive data on the U.S. economy and China’s efforts to stimulate the economy.
However, many traders remain cautious given the prospect of stable supplies from non-OPEC producers and slow demand growth in major importing countries, particularly India.
Background
Since the fall of 2023, Yemen’s Houthis have regularly attacked ships in the Red Sea. On November 14, the group announced that it would attack all ships associated with Israel, calling its actions a response to “American-Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip,” but not only military, but also commercial ships from different countries were attacked.
On January 10, the British Ministry of Defense reported that destroyers of the British fleet, together with American ships, repelled the largest Houthi attack in the Red Sea in recent times. The next day, the US and UK launched large-scale strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Biden called the strikes “defensive actions.”
On January 17, the United States re-listed Yemen’s Houthi movement as a terrorist group due to attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis were first listed as a terrorist organization by the Donald Trump administration shortly before he left office, but under Joe Biden the Houthis were removed from the list so as not to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Source: Racurs
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